Show biz survivor Spirtas in one-man show

Published
5:08 pm CDT, Thursday, June 4, 2015

ST. LOUIS — Actor-singer Kevin Spirtas, who thwarted Jason’s best attempts to off him as Nick in “Friday the 13th: Part VII,” has advice for anyone being stalked by a homicidal, hockey-mask wearing lunatic.

“All the people who get killed in those movies — they leave the pack,” the St. Louis native said during a telephone interview from his Los Angeles hometown. “You’re not supposed to leave the pack. Those who do are going off on their own, they’re having sex, they’re smoking or they’re going swimming in the lake.”

Spirtas, also known for his longtime role as Dr. Craig Wesley on the daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” is leaving the pack — planning to kill it — for a one-man stage show in “Cabaret Risque” at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2, at the Centene Center for the Arts in St. Louis. Cocktail hour begins at 7 p.m. Ticket prices range from $75 for individual seats to $1,000 for a VIP table for four.

“The connection is immediate,” he said about being on stage. “It’s not something you film, and three-and-a-half weeks later you see it on TV, or a year later you see it (in the movie theater). Most things you tape or film without an audience. So it’s a different muscle, but it’s the muscle I find to be the most rewarding – performing live –whether it’s a play or it’s singing. You’re there — the response is immediate.”

In spite of the show’s title, Spirtas said his act will not be risqué. His solo performance, accompanied by a pianist, will range from “The Lady is a Tramp” to “I’m Not the Boy Next Door,” plus plenty more.

“There are some Peter Allen songs I’ve been doing, plus some standards,” he said. “I’ll do some songs you all haven’t heard and seen, and some that you have heard and seen.”

Spirtas has an impressive resume. He famously portrayed Wesley, the nemesis of Matt Leblanc’s Dr. Drake Ramoray, on a “Days of Our Lives” send-up on “Friends.” On Broadway, he played Warren Sheffield in “Meet Me in St. Louis” and on The Muny’s stage he played Conrad Birdie in “Bye Bye Birdie.” Spirtas guest-starred on “Quantum Leap,” “Silk Stalkings” and “L.A. Heat” as well as in such films as “Daredevil,” “Apt Pupil,” “Embrace the Darkness,” a plethora of slasher films including his stint with Jason, including “Subspecies II” and “The Hills Have Eyes II.”

His first big break was playing “A Chorus Line’s” Mike Costa on Broadway at age 18, mere months after graduating from Ladue High School in St. Louis.

“I didn’t even pay my dues that much,” he said. “I was there (in New York City) for three months and I got ‘A Chorus Line.’ I was plucked out of that ‘actor-hunting-for-a-job’ thing very early, and I was very, very lucky. It sort of started the whole momentum.”

Spirtas said performing on Broadway at that tender age wasn’t nerve-wracking as much as an affirmation.

“There was a great sense of confidence,” he said. “I think that’s sort of the thing that’s always carried me through the 30-some-odd years I’ve been in the business. Your confidence comes and goes in different degrees and different levels of where you’re at and what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.”

Spirtas knew then that “A Chorus Line” would eventually play out for him.

“I looked at that role of Mike Costa, and knew that someday I was going to (live) that role,” he said.

This continues to be the case, with Spirtas getting a strong vibe early whether auditions for certain roles will work out for him.

“I know the roles that I’ll get before I get them,” Spirtas said. “There’s a connection I have to the piece.”

That connection borders on psychic, he said. Sometimes when his agent calls with a possible gig, Spirtas doesn’t get a positive feeling about the role. Other times, no matter for a play, television or film, he senses good karma long before the audition.

Although several years in the rear-view mirror, few of his roles have engendered such enduring interest as the nefarious Dr. Wesley and Nick the slasher survivor. Spirtas has attended plenty of “Friday the 13th”and “Days of Our Lives” fan conventions.

“Soap fans are the truest and the most loyal, but the slasher fans, they’re pretty good too,” he said. “I’ve gone to more slasher and horror conventions than the soap ones recently.”

The fans can be rather, well, fanatic.

“There are people who think you are that character,” Spirtas said. “Some of these fans really believe that you are Dr. Craig Wesley, or you are Nick. Some of them will pose the question, ‘When Jason came up to you and grabbed you, weren’t you scared?’ I do meet a lot of interesting people who really take the content seriously.”

Unlike some of his fan base, Spirtas isn’t living on past glory. He just wrapped a new online soap opera called “Winterthorne,” which can be seen later this year at www.winterthorne.com. He is doing some runway host work at events such as the Daytime Emmy Awards and working on an interview show called “All Sides.” The show will feature entertainment industry types. He also is scripting a new web series about love and loss called “After Forever” and producing and developing an as-yet-unnamed slasher film.

It’s been a great ride, and isn’t over.

“I’m proud of all my work, but I’m most proud of my stick-to-it-tiveness,” he said. “Sort of staying in it and being able to adapt to the change as it’s come and gone, and come again. I feel blessed that I was given this talent – that I can sing, and I love the stage, and acting is a great part of that.”

Spirtas loves show business and is grateful to have an active role in it.

“There are valleys, and there are high, high peaks,” he said. “But the ride is the ride, and if you sign up for it, that’s what you sign up for.”